In the heart of darkness essay

In The Heart of Darkness.

Marlow learns firsthand the effects. inhuman treatment. commercialism. and corruptness of colour consciousness in European colonialism.

The mercantile system and capitalist economy which were deriving currency in Europe officially spread throughout the universe by the colonialism. This focal point on wealth acquisition drives the Europeans to plunder African districts of the cherished tusk. ignites the barbarous rhythm of force and inhuman treatment. dehumanizes the Natives of Africa. and takes modern racism to a whole new degree under the stalking-horse of educating and lenifying the African peoples. Marlow. who is the supporter in this book along with Kurtz.

bears testimony of his ocean trip to Africa that: “ I have seen the Satan of force. and the Satan of greed. and the Satan of hot desire” ( Conrad 34 ) . These account sums up what Marlow encounters in Africa and gives a intimation as to offenses of colonialism which existed in the name of trade and conquering. The Heart of Darkness explores the darkest motives of colonialism and foreground its plundering docket by commercialisation of a civilization. the denuding and development of great wealth. In the Scramble for Africa.

European states nem con agreed on bagging and claiming parts of it. The understanding legitimized the groups of plagiarists posed as bargainers to interchange with and enslave the native peoples in a 2nd unit of ammunition of Neo-Slavery. The significance of the rubric. Heart of Darkness. flows in tandem with the love of money which is the root of all evil. This imperialist greed is what exposes “ the criminalism of inefficiency and pure selfishness when undertaking the educating work of Africa” ( Hawkins 286 ) . The bosom is entirely given over to the selfish chase of wealth and encumbers the multitudes by captivity and misrepresentation.

Kurtz is the incarnation of European colonialism “ for largely his expeditions had been for ivory” ( Conrad 92 ) . The monetary value of tusk is priceless. As testament to the presence of the extraction of Ivory in colonial times. we have the Ivory Coast.

The indigens would run the elephant for the tusk and so would merchandise it for shells. strings. rum etc with the European ‘ explorers. ’ Just as Kurtz’ life revolves around the Hunt and addition for tusk ( wealth ) . the cardinal intent of the Scramble for Africa which instigated the European colonialism is commercialism. which was lone development of an nescient people. Kurtz is introduced to Marlow as a adult male “ grubbing for ivory” ( Conrad 72 ) .

Marlow/Conrad uses a adept literary technique in dehumanising the Europeans for merely animate beings grub for nutrient. Ivory becomes non merely the nutrient which feeds their insatiate desires for self-aggrandizement. but besides holds an enshrined place as a God. to whom their fear ascends. As a fledgling on the expedition. Marlow heard “ the word tusk rang in the air. was whispered and sighed.

You would believe they were praying to it. A contamination of imbecilic edacity blew through it all” ( Conrad 44 ) . These work forces sell their psyches for a natural resource in the name of commercialisation and prosperity. Under the auspices of a company. programs were made to sabotage the rights of the people and to get more district. Marlow often alludes to “ the Company” for whom he works.

It is the East Indian Company which established trading stations and for whom Marlow. Kurtz. and several other British work forces render service. Conrad states that “ the Company had the right to every spot of information about its territories” ( Conrad175 ) .

Here is a bold statement which demonstrates the company authorising edicts. puting up surveillance. annexing district. and claiming rights to ownership and administration. The embryologic marks are already being made manifest that Neo-colonialism is traveling to rise up its caput to prominence. As if to stress the fiscal nature of their intent and intercourse with the people.

Conrad underlines that the squad of the Company were like those of El Dorado. “ hunters for gold or chasers of fame” ( Conrad 17 ) . Conrad makes a pertinent connexion with the conquistadores and Spanish adventurers of the ‘ New World’ who searched and hunted for gold due to the fabulous narrative of concealed hoarded wealths in the jungles. The motivations and the techniques have non changed. The end of the work forces to Africa is specifically to carry on trade although there is matured mapmaking traveling on along the book similar to the early Spanish adventurers. Describing the director of one of the Company’s Stationss. Marlow describes him as one whose “ eyes glittered like isinglass discs” ( Conrad 45 ) . This comparing of his eyes to mica Tells of his materialistic vision and aim.

Mica is a silvery cherished rock which gleams like diamond-like crystals which a hexangular form. It was considered a gem since it was rarefied in Europe therefore extremely dearly-won. The inhuman treatment of European colonialism is plain to the sight in Heart of Darkness. and is a byproduct of a darkened bosom.

The presence of rifles. guns. and bayonets of the Europeans versus the lances. bows.

pointers. and nines of the Native makes this fresh really bloody. dehumanizing.

violent. and barbarous. The idol of inhuman treatment is of class. Kurtz who embodies the Machiavellian moral principle of colonisers who do whatever is necessary to accomplish their ain terminals. As Marlow enters Kurtz’ brooding.

Marlow is greeted by the caputs which stand on bets and decorate his place like decorations ( Conrad 94 ) . What brutal adult male would hold dead corpses of decapitated victims invariably environing him! The reeking of decease in Heart of Darkness is “ the aroma of the lies’ contamination as it emanates from the symbolic cadavers and metaphoric decay that litters the class of the story” ( Steward 319 ) . Moral decay and degeneracy are what corrupts Kurtz and which becomes materialized in the corpses around which he surrounds himself. Whatever the colonisers could non obtain by misrepresentation. they take by force. Cruelty comes of course to Kurtz to the point that it overtakes him. Even Kurtz threatens to kill Marlow on one juncture in demand for some of the latter’s tusk. Frequently intertribal war would break out because of runing struggle and robberies-it was a bloody.

cruel matter. Marlow depicts the hunting as “ just robbery with force. aggravated slaying on a great scale” ( Conrad 69 ) . In one case Marlow informant to the merciless whipping of an African by one of the European bargainers as penalty ( Conrad 23 ) .

Cruelty is a tactic employed to subject and to intimidate people. A startling instance of this is the whipping of the African which Marlow records earlier in the book. The earful occurs in forepart of several of his ain people who stand around making nil to assist the beaten victim. Marlow sees the strong Africans around him and knows that they can overmaster the white work forces.

nevertheless. the head is already enslaved and terrorized hence the Europeans have free rein over Africa. Whipping is a punitory method which recalls the times of bondage where slaves had to be lashed as inducement to labor harder or as an illustration of warning to others. Sometimes inhuman treatment is the agencies and sometimes it is the terminal. Violence strains force. As the Europeans continue to presume rights and invade district. the people of Africa rise up in rebellion.

A few work forces of their squad are killed by the African heavy weapon. Marlow attests to the ammo where he observes “ a heavy rifle. and a light six-gun carbine – the bolt of lightnings of that pathetic Jupiter” ( Conrad 98 ) . Furthermore. Africans negotiated the tusk trade provided that they could get the high quality arms of the Europeans so that in their local wars. they could hold a greater advantage. The proliferation of weaponries serves the Europeans’ intent to split and govern so that inhuman treatment against the Africans advances the ruin of the Africans when they kill one another. The effects of colonialism are excessively many to be enumerated ; nevertheless the primary 1s are dehumanisation.

development. poorness. and the decease of a civilization. The European colonisers place a negative building on Africans which Marlow himself has done. Although he merely narrates the narrative based on his Eurocentric position. it is still colored with prejudice. bias.

dehumanisation. and superciliousness toward the Africans. Sing a people as inferior justifies their slaughtering and the pillage of their goods.

Marlow says that he sees “ twenty man-eaters sprinkling about and pushing” ( Conrad 61 ) in a river. This epithet ‘ cannibal’ represents the less than blandishing facet of the African upon which the European fixates therefore corrupting them and their civilization as subhuman. Cannibalism existed in some countries of Africa ; nevertheless. for all the clip that Marlow remains in Africa he is non eaten.

Naming Africans man-eaters was a normal act nevertheless which was in trend among the Europeans. The Africans are ne’er considered homo in the novel. They are named “ black figures” ( Conrad 48 ) . “ savages” ( Conrad 98 ) . barbaric “ naked human beings” ( Conrad 97 ) . “ nigger” ( Conrad 23 ) . “ shadows” ( Conrad 100 ) . Matched up against animate beings.

Marlow compares their sounds to “ a violent babbling of coarse sounds” ( Conrad 38 ) . No African speaks clearly in the fresh visual perception that their foreign lingua has a cacophonic. croaky. and animalistic note. As a consequence the power of discourse entirely belongs the white adult male. “ Edward Said suggests that colonial power and discourse is possessed wholly by the colonizer” ( JanMohamed 59 ) .

The dehumanisation of the African serves to yoke them with The White Man’s Burden masterfully expounded by Rudyard Kipling. “ Marlow feels that colonialism can be redeemed by encompassing an thought unselfishly. That thought can be compared to Rudyard Kipling’s The White Man’s Burden” ( Farn 16 ) .

Broaching more in deepness the subject of European colonialism. Marlow remarks that “ all Europe contributed to the devising of Kurtz…the International Society for the Suppression of the Savage” ( Conrad 83 ) . Here he admits Kurtz’ collusion with Britain and other members of Europe in suppressing African peoples. The whipping of the Africans like small kids or animate beings besides contributes to the adulteration of this people from whose lands they were profiting. A barbarian is semi-human if he is at all.

and since to the colonisers he has nil to state. nor are they interested in decoding his lingua. they take greater autonomy at enchaining him in a web of inexplicable fraudulence. Dehumanization is important in the procedure of colonialism for captivity of the head comes foremost and so the captivity of the organic structure and individual. The colonised individual’s will must be broken. set at nought value and so the colonial is at autonomy to rule. feat and commodify the human being. “ The colonial bequest in Africanist descriptive anthropology can ne’er be negated.

but must be acknowledged under the mark of its erasure” ( Apter 577 ) . Commodification converts the ‘ sacred into the profane’ ( Marx 1848 ) . The English adventurers were the settlers of their twenty-four hours and one time they constructed the Africans as inferior.

or below their civilization. dehumanisation becomes easy and an about natural measure. The bitterest servitude was imposed and barbarous aggressions executed and perpetrated against the Africans. Brutality. demonisation and savageness are justified for the autochthonal peoples are non to the full human ; accordingly the Indians are entirely in their power through gratuitous inhuman treatment and slaughter. European colonisers profited from obsequiousness and subjection. Through force. coercion and duress the European colonisers manipulate for tusk or exact tusk.

while handling the indigens like body waste. The function of colour in European colonialism is easy to penetrate in The Heart of Darkness. The deepness of the colour of darkness has several intensions which Marlow picks up along the manner.

First of all. the association of black has both positive and negative significances. Blackness exemplifies profusion.

deepness. and integrity ; on the other manus. black besides is equated with immorality. corruptness. colonialism.

and the Satan. By the book’s name. one can see that there is a coloured system which Marlow has to see for himself to believe. Positions about the human nature and the human bosom are besides studied as one sees its tremendous capacity to execute beastly. monstrous Acts of the Apostless and these are the traits which colour and defile his bosom.

Heart of Darkness conveys the “ timeless myth about the geographic expedition of the human psyche and the metaphysical power of evil” ( Raskin 113 ) . Colonialism is all about colour and thrives on. the colour line. the division of the races. The European Whites are distinguished about the African inkinesss ; the colour on the maps is a legendary key bespeaking the colonised countries of Africa.

Marlow realizes that Kurtz’ bosom is black as snake pit toward the terminal of the novel. The ignorance and crudeness of the Africans are contrasted with work forces who lived in the visible radiation of civilisation. Hence. the reader additions a wide and deep penetration in understanding the colour codes as Marlow himself comes to hold on. as he represents the vicarious informant through whose eyes.

the reader observes the procedure of colonisation in Africa. In amount. Conrad efficaciously critiques colonialism and topographic points before the reader the darkened bosom: the commercialism.

inhuman treatment. corruptness. and colour consciousness in European colonialism in Heart of Darkness. These elements plunge both the settler and the coloniser in an abysm of ruin where both go dehumanised. financially or morally belly-up. and violent.

The period of Neo-colonialism in Africa accomplishes great mayhem in the name of advancement. commercialisation. and prosperity.